95 Rye Fermentation

[Mountain Brewer]

Hey all,

We are fermenting an on grain 95% rye. We ferment all of our whiskeys on grain given we don't have the ability to lauter/sparge. Our equipment is not set up for lautering. Particularly with our high rye and single malt, there is a 6"-12" grain plug sitting on top of the fermenter preventing CO2 to escape during fermentation. This has lead to bad yields. The lack of CO2 release is killing off the yeast. Recently I have been hooking it up to a pump to circulate 3-5 times a day or taking a SS paddle and mixing the grains back into the rest of the mash sitting below the grain plug on the top. After about an hour or two the grains get pushed back to the top where they dry and plug up the fermentation. We are using 300gal ACE Roto-mold plastic fermenters. Has anyone else had this problem, and come up with a better solution than elbow grease and a paddle?

Thanks

[kleclerc77]

Are you hydrating your yeast properly? I tried dry pitching once and this happened. Started hydrating the yeast, and pitching it almost as soon as I started filling the fermenter and it hasn't happened since. our bourbon gets a bit of a cap to it but you can see the holes in the cap where the co2 is escaping, and looking under the cap you can see the ferment is very active. The cap consistently falls into solution after 48 hours of active fermentation. 

[Mountain Brewer]

Kleclerc77,

Yes, we are using our house dry yeast, I put in go-ferm then add the yeast to the go-ferm slurry at minimum 30 minutes usually an hour before pitching. Then I throw the yeast into the mash ton just before transfer. This is an interesting point though because I pitched one batch at 90 degF and it did not cap. It did very similar to what you just described. The other 2 mashes I pitched around 80-85 degF and those are the fermentations I'm struggling with this cap. 

[Hudson bay distillers]

I never heard of c02 killing yeast ....our ferments get as much as a 8 inch thick grain cap but dont  see any affect on ferment ....when it stops fermenting cap drops . Interesting 

[whiskeytango]

20 minutes ago, Hudson bay distillers said:

I never heard of c02 killing yeast ....our ferments get as much as a 8 inch thick grain cap but dont  see any affect on ferment ....when it stops fermenting cap drops . Interesting 

Yeah this is what we see as well.  Have never heard that the cap is causing yeast to die due to C02 build up.  

[Silk City Distillers]

Big grain cap is healthy and expected in a grain-in ferment.

Punch her down once a day if you can.  We have agitators on our fermenters so we can spin them up for a few minutes to mix in the cap (which inevitably reforms in an hour or two).

The reason you probably didn't get a cap at a 90f pitch temp, is because yeast were so stressed the fermentation was likely sluggish, and didn't generate enough co2 to raise the roof.

Winemakers deal with the same issue when fermenting with skins.  They punch down the cap to keep it moist, which retards mold formation.  Our fermentations are short enough that we aren't going to have mold issues in most cases, so if you just wait for the cap to drop, you'd be ok.

Fun for us is when it's so active, the fermentation pushes the cap right over the top/sides of our open top fermenters (Metalcraft style).  The lids don't stand chance.  Those mornings suck.

[Mountain Brewer]

Thanks all for the responses,

I may have miss spoke with saying CO2 kills the yeast as much as the pressure build up. I may be mistaken on this but it is what my brain thinks is happening. I came over to the distilling world from brewing about 6 months back so I'm in a little bit of new waters here. The high pitch temp should be able to be handled by the yeast as our rums are also in the 90's for fermentation temps and they kick hard and fast (same yeast but with a 50/50 rum yeast). The first strip of the 90 deg pitch was a great yield and I exceeded my standard ABV return. After transfer the temp was closer to 85 then in the 90's. I'm running more today. I have many more ryes to make so as I'm developing these pitch temps and SOP's I'll mess around and find the sweet spot. Any and all advice is taken in here so thank you. Below is a picture of the cap I walked into this morning. That is day 2 of fermentation.

Silk City, I have walked in many mornings cleaning up the floors of slop overflow lol labor of love! I'll punch it down and keep taking my readings to get a better understanding of what is happening. 

 

[kleclerc77]

17 hours ago, Silk City Distillers said:

 

The reason you probably didn't get a cap at a 90f pitch temp, is because yeast were so stressed the fermentation was likely sluggish, and didn't generate enough co2 to raise the roof.

 

I found kind of the opposite to be true for us. When I dry pitched and there was no action, I got a bigger grain cap than I have seen since, probably 12"-18". With hydrated yeast starting to do its thing quickly, causing some natural agitation, the grain caps are in the 6" range. It could have been happenstance, hell if I know. I also am finding that malted barley definitely provides more structure for a larger grain cap to form, but also gets very uniform pock marks where the co2 is escaping. A nightmare for trypophobics, but I love to see it! There are so many factors that lead to these different findings among us - milling, yeast used, pitch temp, fermenter shape, the list goes on. It makes it tough to get the perfect advice for your unique situation, but gives you lots of good starting points. 

[SlickFloss]

When you're talking about grain cap are you talking kraus layer?

 

Whats your mash protocol- grist ratio, gel temps and times, enzymatic rests?

 

Also I see you said you add goferm, why are you doing this? Was it to fix a problem you thought you had? Or have you always been doing this and not really knowing why?

 

Grain in fermentations especially at the grist ratios we see for whiskey mashes (as opposed to lautered beer wort, wine, sugar shine etc) has tons and tons and tons of nutrients for yeast already. In our experience things like dap and fermaid k etc cause more problems than help problems with all grain fermentations for whiskey.

 

You could probably use more headspace in that fermenter too, it would save you from cleaning in the mornings. If you cooked it right rye is going to foam somewhere, either in fermentation or distillation. Hopefully fermentation. Antifoam helps. Enzymes help. Knowing how to cook and distill rye helps.

 

Is this going through a column or a pot?

 

cheers

 

[Bakery87]

What is the grain/water ratio in the rye ferment?

[Mountain Brewer]

When you're talking about grain cap are you talking kraus layer?

-No, Kraus is from the yeast, this is a layer of grain and hulls and gris that is on top of the fermenter that is solid particulate. 

Whats your mash protocol- grist ratio, gel temps and times, enzymatic rests?

-We don't mill our own grain, and the majority of the grain is unmalted raw grain from the family farm. This grain/rye also wasn't milled well. 1/3 to 1/2 of the grains are still solid. This has caused struggles for me mashing, but we are looking into a mill as we speak. I'm doing 300 gal mashes, 350# raw rye. 350# malted rye. 50# dist. malt. I mash in at 160 with all the grains. After mash in I add 200g visco-ferm, 300g san ex, and 200g Termamyl.  Rest for 30 min. @ 155ish drop to 135-140 rest for 1 hour as it drops into the 120's. crash to below 90, pitch yeast. (360g go ferm 320g house yeast). Transfer to fermenter. I aeration the mash via heavy splashing on the way into the fermenter, but given the water and mash are never boiled as in beer or corn, there should be plenty of O2 in solution.  I leave 6" of head space and a small 12" open top.

Also I see you said you add goferm, why are you doing this? Was it to fix a problem you thought you had? Or have you always been doing this and not really knowing why?

-The goferm is how we hydrate our dry yeast. The yeast come out of the fridge and I mix it into the mix above of 360 go ferm 320 dry yeast and let sit for 30 min minimum usually for over an hour as the yeast rehydrates. This prevents the shock of just pitching dry yeast into the mash. Atleast that is my perspective on it. 

Grain in fermentations especially at the grist ratios we see for whiskey mashes (as opposed to lautered beer wort, wine, sugar shine etc) has tons and tons and tons of nutrients for yeast already. In our experience things like dap and fermaid k etc cause more problems than help problems with all grain fermentations for whiskey.

 

You could probably use more headspace in that fermenter too, it would save you from cleaning in the mornings. If you cooked it right rye is going to foam somewhere, either in fermentation or distillation. Hopefully fermentation. Antifoam helps. Enzymes help. Knowing how to cook and distill rye helps.

 

Is this going through a column or a pot?

- We double pot still all our whiskeys. Strip then spirit. We don't have a thumper or doubler. 

cheers

-Thanks for the input and advice. As stated earlier I am a brewer by education and now distilling by trade. I am open for any and all information/ tips and tricks that come my way. 

 

Bakery 87: 

300 gal H20 to 750 lbs grain, so just over a 2:1. This gives me a 1.075 SG and usually finishes 1.010 or lower. 8-10 ABV

 

- I've ran 2 of the 3 ferments this week. I am yielding about 50 gals (400lbs) of LWs at 50% ABV per 300gal fermentation

[SlickFloss]

Im going to copy paste from your post instead of quoting you back to keep from getting convoluted, we can figure this out especially when you get a mill.

 

"No, Kraus is from the yeast, this is a layer of grain and hulls and gris that is on top of the fermenter that is solid particulate"

Sorry homey I am spoiled only ever worked in bigger facilities besides shining on my grandaddys farm, this mess can be solved with your milling. Given your size you could be going off of flour if your mill will be able to go that fine. It sounds like you aren't milling and you are also not screening, which would help with chaff etc. Also, something we do at my grandaddys where we don't mill as well (sounds similar to hat you're talking about all chaffed up) we run a recirc from bottom of kettle just on a gentle low draw pump it helps to kind of continually push those down into solution and help them get cooked in. Your best friend here will be proper milling. Ive seen immersion blenders used in the woods too that might help but it would take a while.

 

-We don't mill our own grain, and the majority of the grain is unmalted raw grain from the family farm. This grain/rye also wasn't milled well. 1/3 to 1/2 of the grains are still solid. This has caused struggles for me mashing, but we are looking into a mill as we speak. I'm doing 300 gal mashes, 350# raw rye. 350# malted rye. 50# dist. malt. I mash in at 160 with all the grains. After mash in I add 200g visco-ferm, 300g san ex, and 200g Termamyl.  Rest for 30 min. @ 155ish drop to 135-140 rest for 1 hour as it drops into the 120's. crash to below 90, pitch yeast. (360g go ferm 320g house yeast). Transfer to fermenter. I aeration the mash via heavy splashing on the way into the fermenter, but given the water and mash are never boiled as in beer or corn, there should be plenty of O2 in solution.  I leave 6" of head space and a small 12" open top.

Yeah get a mill or a better miller. Anything would help even a dang roller. Are you having any clumping issue doughing in that high? Grist ratio is going to be your pounds of grain /water (You will see a lot of mashes in whiskey come out to 1.8-2.5 lbs/gallon, you said you are about 2lb/gal))? We hydrate grist by adding grains around 130-140 and do a brief rest there before we begin really cooking (for both our 51 and 95 rye). Also, even though rye will supposedly gel at 160, that is optimally meaning optimal starch accessibility, right? Given you are having trouble with milling you could increase temp (and maybe time but if you go hot enough you won't have to go longer) here and it would likely help you out in terms of yield and gelatinization. TAA is high temp tolerant, you could mash in your grains and take them up to 170/180 and still have TAA be effective. Even if your malt isn't active you are converting with enzyme anyways. I used malt in my 95 and malted 51 more for liquefaction than anything else. It. helps with clumping, I cook to 200 or 210 anyways so I know I am going to be converting with TAA anyways. Makes for easier handling of rye and corn especially corn. On our 95 we will all malt in to help w liquefaction of corn and rye (but mainly for corn) then other grains. Your enzyme game looks good but can be much better. You should check out SGA (glucoamylase enyme) your yields will soar. Also, possibly a proteolytic enzyme if you feel it may help you (protease). We've also been using neutrase as well. How are your ferments progressing? Where are you stalling out at in terms of Brix? It looks like you're targeting beta activation for some reason with your 140s 60 minute rest, do I have that correct? Alpha activation will be better for yields, maltose is infermentable as I imagine you understand. If you used SGA in the 1402 there you're yield would go up. I don't know what SAN-EX is, what is that? If that is an enzyme for Glucoamylase ignore my SGA comments and comments about maltose. So go Ferm is a yeast nutrient correct? We use 4500 grams of yeast for 3800 gallon batches we ferment out 18-20 Brix no issue (just so you know where we are at with yeast for comparison).

 

-6 inches of head space has not bene enough historically, correct? (reference your cleaning schedules : ))

-yeast are incredibly resilient buggers that we for some reason tend to wear baby gloves for. What type are you using? If you would like to talk to someone more about yeast I can introduce you to my supplier, he has done unbelievable things for our company in terms of knowledge shared. You'd be surprised how well a ferment will go dry pitching (not that I'm recommending dry pitching). We have found that rehydrating in warm water to be as effective as making a complicated starter (or using a premade starter like what I think goferm is) or a mash starter. To be honest I fermented 1200 gallons of mash last week with 500 grams of expired yeast in sampler packs. Fermented out 17.5 Brix in 4 days and we turned it all into hand sanitizer.

 

 "We double pot still all our whiskeys. Strip then spirit. We don't have a thumper or doubler."

-Sounds good here. How are your cuts coming? You finding organoleptic cues okay? How are you stripping runs going? Are you getting foaming? Are you familiar with the term hot break and how/why to utilize it to prevent rye strips from foaming up still? Rye will tend to start to foam when the stripping run gets to about 190is. Pull back on your heat a bit (you will see the foaming start to retard a touch) and just kid of hold it here. You will notice if your steam pulses it will start to foam again, but if you hold it eventually, it will collapse and you can push the heat heavy through the rest of the strip.

 

Fuck yeah bro. My redneck ass only good for two things thats running stills and giving my fiance thrills. You're not the latter so Ill help you with the former.Let me know man. Can jump on the phone with you too. Only ask that you send me a bottle of good rye when it comes through on the other end, ill return he favor. If the first few ain't good I can wait, we'll getcha there.

[Mountain Brewer]

Slickfloss: 

 First and foremost, Thanks for the laugh with your last paragraph. You had me laughing on a busy Monday morning. Also I really appreciate the long and thorough response. 

 We are looking into a mill but in the meantime I still need to be making whiskey. I did get my hands on some fine ground rye that is damn near flour. I'm mashing that today. 350 raw rye from our farm, 350 malted rye and 50 dist. malt. I'll sub in the fine ground with the malted (150 fine 200 malted). If I'm using enzymes do I need the malted rye? my thought is it helps with conversion and also adds some flavor and hopefully mouthfeel. Thoughts on this? I'll still be doing 750# of grain to 300 gal of water making my ratio 2.5. I'm mashing in at 160, I'll hold there for an hour, do an iodine test and then crash. If you have a rest that i should add in here I'm still developing these SOPs so i can add another rest in. Why would you boil your 95 rye 200-210? Anything over 172-178 F would denature all natural enzymes. I guess thats why you are using the TAA. So my Enzymes are Visco Ferm: Beta glucanase, Termamyle: Alpha-amylase, and San Ex: Alpha-amylase and Gluco-amylase. I hit these with 200g each and San Ex with 300g each. I emailed Novoenzymes to get a better data sheet on these given this conversation. When they get back to me I will dial those in better. As for Go-ferm it is a yeast nutrient and thats what I use to hydrate the yeast. I can PM you with our house yeast, but I not going to shout that out over an open feed. Its the only "secret" we keep. Its temp range is 88-93 and is a beast of a yeast. I pitch under 90 F usually right around 85 and let the temp rise during ferm. I agree that a lot of people put on baby gloves with yeast regardless of how resilient they are. The brewer in me was always worried about yeast and microbes but now that everything I make goes in a still, I've strayed from the white glove mentality.  I shoot for a 1.075 and finish right around 1.010 sg. (18 brix - 2.6 brix). 

There is foaming in the still but we have a tall column on our pot so I'm not concerned with foam over. Is there any other reason i would be concerned with foaming in the still? When it comes to cuts they are all made by sensory. We have 30+ corny kegs that I treat as large mason jars. Sensory, ABV and temp (usually in this order) are how we make our cuts. Thats the only way I know how. Usually going from 900gal ferms after 2 pot runs down to a barrel (53gal) plus/minus. Then into the barrel at 120p. Thoughts on entry proof? or we can save that for another conversation. 

Dude I'm pumped for a high rye, I love my white dog, but also looking forward to seeing it through the barrel. I would love to send you a bottle if your willing to wait 4 years. Bottled in Bond straight rye. I'll bottle swap with another one of our products. I'll PM you with my contact info. 

[SlickFloss]

All day baby! We are a community! This is absolutely my pleasure, someone did it for me here 8ish years ago. You are definitely barking up the right tree. That rest with the San EX is muy bien.

If you're converting with enzyme malt is pointless except for texture and flavor. So not pointless but essentially pointless for conversion. The higher you cook grains the faster they will gelatinize. I did a few runs with Pickerell he liked to cook to 200 and I kinda kept doing it after he died. Given milling issue it cannot hurt at all to help eek out some more conversion. 

 

Novozymes is a great supplier. `IM sorry I didn't know what kind of product Sanex was, you are looking good on enzymes.

 

Keep that yeast close to your chest, as log as you know where it is comfortable thats all that matters. When we speak on phone I will hook you up with our yeast guys and you can do what you like with the introduction.

 

1075-1010 is as complete as it gets well done

 

As for foaming, if you mind the hot break you can push the still harder it can just increase speed of stripping runs a little bit. IF you guys are okay with the foaming you're getting no need to fix what isn't broken. 

 

Sounds like you are get feel for organoleptic on still. That corny keg method is perfect. You are killing it bro. You re doing everything you can and should be, it will all fall into line.

 

Lots of thoughts on entry proof! Lets save that for phone!

[JustAndy]

From your description the grain cap is from not milling fine enough and not cooking to a high enough temp. The amount of heat work (time x temp) needed for gelatinzation depends hugely on particle size and physical disruption of the starch matrix in the grain.  Imagine you are cooking breakfast porrage. If you take raw, unmilled rye and put it in a pot of 160 water, the grain will get a bit slimy on the outside but never cook through. I agree with SlickFloss about needing to take it up to at least 180F, and there really isn't a harm in taking it to 200 if your AA can tolerate it.  

I also have never seen a need for GoFerm or similar nutrients in a grain ferment. And the concern about foaming is the more foaming you have the more fouling and not every column is designed correctly to be cleaned easily and completely. 

4 hours ago, Mountain Brewer said:

There is foaming in the still but we have a tall column on our pot so I'm not concerned with foam over.

Is there any other reason i would be concerned with foaming in the still?

Usually going from 900gal ferms after 2 pot runs down to a barrel (53gal) plus/minus. Then into the barrel at 120p.

If you are only getting 1x 53 barrel at 120p out of 900 gal mash you've got some serious yield issues, maybe that was a typo? at 750 lb per 300 gal, that's 2,250 lb per barrel, for our 100% rye it's something closer to 800ish lb per barrel not accounting for feints from previous runs.   

[Mountain Brewer]

Andy,

 I'm aware of the mill/gris, we are working on getting a mill. In the mean time I'll give the higher temp cooks ago. Today I mashed in at 160F held for an hour/hour and a half, and pulled a sample at 20 brix 1.083sg. My next mash is Wednesday so I'll take that up to 180F and see if that helps with the cap. I'm awaiting a response from Novoenzymes to see at what temp the enzymes denature at. As far as grain to barrel, I'm honestly not sure. my first task as a distiller was rum. That took me about 6 months to get where I wanted it and the rums that didn't make the cut for clear went into a barrel. High ester rum kicked my ass, so many rabbit holes to go down. To dunder or not to dunder lol... Now I'm cracking the nut of rye and we will see where my yields land. I'm getting 450lbs of LWs at 45-50%abv per 300 gal ferm. I'll run the spirit run later this week. I'll keep you posted on my final yield into barrel. 

[JustAndy]

Hopefully the attached helps. 

We do 2 different mash schedules depending, as some of our whiskey gets made in a 500 L wood butt that can't be heated, so we use a falling temperature mash for that. But a more typical approach would be mixing in grains & water, adding an initial dose of visco and termamyl and adjusting pH and starting to heat, bringing up to 180+, cooling back down to 140-160, adjusting pH and adding visco & sacyme.  

[kleclerc77]

Gotta agree with the gluco add right before pitching your yeast. That stuff works miracles.

I think you may be able to cut back a bit on your grain bill as well, maybe aim for that 16 brix as opposed to the 20 brix range. Maybe try 300lbs of your malted and unmalted ryes instead of 350lbs.

I'm  working on bringing our cook temp down from 180 for rye closer to 160, and extending the rest for 15-30 more minutes to make up for the efficiency at 180. It was recommended by our enzyme supplier who suggested we'll like the results from a flavor standpoint, and shouldn't notice a difference in yield. We'll have to compare notes, coming from opposite sides on that one! 

[Mountain Brewer]

Kleclerc,

Are you saying adding in a second dose of gluco (san ex in my case) right at yeast pitch? (85 deg F)

With the grain build, I agree. 20brix / 1.085 is a little high finishing around 11.5%abv. I would prefer to be right at and around 10 abv. I'll adjust the grain bill going forth. I am doing the spirit run tomorrow and will have more info on final yields. Then I will adjust accordingly. 

When you bring the cook temp down, what flavor or mouth feel are you expecting to change? Just curious. 

[kleclerc77]

Your enzyme supplier will definitely give you the best info about how to use your enzymes. Ours has us pitching gluco right as we start to fill the fermenter, it keeps working during the ferment, making more sugars available that the alpha was incapable of doing by itself. 

I'm dealing with a subtle off flavor in our spirit that hopefully will be solved with a combination of using nutrient, and by not bringing the rye too far past its required gel temp, which is ~160F. I'm looking for a bolder rye flavor from our 95+% rye. It seems a little muted, not quite standing up to the barrels after six months. Bringing it above its gel temp was compared to basically just overcooking anything. Here's a snippet from an earlier post by them (Wilderness Trail/Ferm Solutions) about why they choose to not bring their small grains up to the temp needed to gel corn which is that 180F-190F range:

"The reasons you do not cook grains beyond their proper gelatinization range is more about flavor than yield because if it is too rigorous, thermal decomposition of grain components will cause objectionable popcorn phenolic odors, yield is more impacted by poor grains, under cooking, poor conversion and yeast conditions. By using the infusion mashing process for small grains, you keep the branched chain amino acids and proteins in place with the grains that the yeast will use to properly make a flavorful result.  If you boil your small grains, you are creating unbranched chain amino acids, degrading proteins and frankly blowing apart the flavor you are trying to extract.  Small grains also get scorched very easy and there are Maillard effects that create all kinds of new chemicals from the high heat of small grains you don't want, plus why would you, the process doesn't require it.  The yeast take these unbranched chain and Maillard effect's and turns them into higher alcohols (fusels) and other chemicals that alter the flavor and result of the beer & distillate."

It's from a post about bourbon production, but the point stands that bringing small grains past their required gel temp can produce muted/off flavors. Not to mention it will save us time and energy not cooking all of our grains so high. It may not solve our problem, but I'm 100% willing to give it a try and compare. 

[Mountain Brewer]

Thank you for that. That was a good read and helps me further fine tune the rye that I am developing.

The 95 rye mash that I made yesterday seem happy as a clown. Nice 1-2" krause on top, no grain cap as of now. Sitting at 85F 4.8 ph. I mashed in at 160 for 1.5 hrs, added my enzymes from above and then let it crash. It takes our system about 1-2 hrs to crash from that temp so it hit the natural beta rest as it crash for 15-30 mins. Since it never boiled there was plenty of 02 in it still and when I transfer to the ferm I splash it from the top adding even more natural 02 into the mash. 

Given the response from Wilderness Trail and this rye chugging along, I'll keep repeating this process.  

[Silk City Distillers]

Just my two cents on playing with malt and unmalt rye, not sure anyone else has had a similar experience.

Malt rye - spicier

Unmalt rye - fruitier

Though with enough time on oak, spice eventually dominates.

Some of our first ryes were heavy on the malt - but in a desire to work with a local farmer, we eventually settled on 100% local unmalt.

One more point, as above, 100% unmalt - we take it up to 190-200, we tried lower, yields suffer dramatically.  Unmalted grain needs time and temp.

 

[Mountain Brewer]

Thanks Silk,

The mash on this mine is 50/50 malted / unmalted. The fermented mash is very flowery, but tomorrow I'll see how the first Spirit run taste as white dawg (my personal favorite whiskey). The unmalted is from the owners family farm and the malted from Briess.

 Right now I'm educating myself more on barrel entry proof. Had a good conversation with a buddy and realized I'm behind the curve on barreling other than economics vs flavor. Now I'm diving more into the chemistry and flavor profile at different proofs and extractions. If any one knows of a good source for knowledge on this, I'd love a good read.    

[Shane]

First time poster here, but wanted to throw in my 2 cents.

You might have mentioned it somewhere above but are you adding the unmalted and malted grains at separate times?  I cook my unmalted for 40 minutes then drop the temp to add my malted grains and mash at 150 F.

Are you controlling pH? Enzymes work best at different pHs. Im not familiar with the enzymes you use but it would be worth checking with the manufacturer.

Have you taken a sample of your wort to check the YAN?  I do 100 percent rye mashes and Ive had batches of rye that needed nutrient adds and batches that didn't.  180-200 ppm YAN should be enough for an 18 brix wort.  

If you're getting all fermentable sugars your FG should be negative.  If your FG is 1.010 you might have a stuck fermentation, and available nitrogen could be the problem.   

When rehydrating yeast I would recommend pitching it earlier, going more than 35-40 minutes before pitching isn't ideal (even with Goferm).  The rule I've always followed is no more than 18 F difference between yeast slurry and whatever you're inoculating. Once you mix the dry yeast in, let it sit for 20 minutes then add enough wort to bring the yeast slurry down no more than 18 F wait 5 minutes then repeat until it is within 18 F of your wort.  

The podcast Distilling Craft has a good episode on entry proof. 'barrels of fun' from august 14, 2017 its a crash course but I found it interesting. 

 

[Mountain Brewer]

Alright gents,

On the spirit run... I got 243 lbs at 78% 156p = 52.37 PG hearts... I got in touch with an enzyme guy and we changed my rest and mashing procedures. I research that about 5 pg per bushel is a good goal. I'm unsure if that is 5 pg of hearts per bushel or 5 pg of ethanol. Theoretical for a 5 pg per bushel = 56lbs per bushel of rye.         Theoretical: (750 lbs / 56lbs =13.4 bushels * 5 pg per bushel = 66.9 PG).

Actual: 52.37pg hearts / 13.4 bushels = 3.9 PG hearts per bushel..... It is Friday so I hope my brain is working correctly with my math...

There is room for a yield improvement but after this next run I think my yields will increase. Not to mention this rye is delicious. Strawberry floral sweetness up front with a little hidden spice. After a few years in a 53g I think it will be a nice rye.

Our feints we run through a vodka column and make a nice refined spirit, I'll probably be turning it into a Aquavit ran through a Gin Basket. I know a lot of people run their feints back into the next batch. That would probably help my yields, but being craft we enjoy putting out new products.  

Thanks everyone for the input on this it really helped me dial it all in.